Activists demand better transport
JAKARTA (JP): Discriminatory practices in the public transport sector must give way to safe, reliable services during holiday seasons, activists said yesterday.
Wahyu, a People's Transport Committee spokesman, said that the public transport system fails to meet the needs of the majority who, unlike officials, must jostle for tickets at bus and train stations to reach their hometowns.
He cited overbooking, discriminatory service, poor roads, a lack of punctuality and illegal levies as problems which have led to a string of transportation disasters needlessly claiming the lives of many innocent people.
"The elderly, pregnant, children and disabled are the victims who are most affected by these unfair practices," he said.
In the annual rush home for the Feb. 9 and Feb. 10 Idul Fitri holiday, poor transport services, accidents, flight cancellations and extortion have reportedly been rife.
At Merak Port, West Java, nine people fainted Wednesday as they jostled their way through a sea of travelers to the ferries.
One hundred and thirteen people were stranded in Jakarta after the army Hercules airplanes their travel agent had promised to take them to Bangka, South Sumatra, never showed up. They were taken by a Merpati Nusantara Airlines aircraft yesterday.
Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said he knew of travel agents and bus conductors overcharging passengers but the government could do nothing because the victims had not filed complaints.
Wahyu said flaws in existing legislation favored transportation investors rather than consumers.
"Officials, who travel frequently, have access to tickets and receive higher priority than the majority of consumers," he said. He called for revisions to transportation policies,
Zumrotin K Soesilo of the Indonesian Consumers Agency said officials' and business executives' special access to travel agencies granted them access to comfortable, reliable trains, buses and airplanes all year round.
Although the same prices apply to everyone, Zumrotin said officials, including Armed Forces officers, receive special allocations and convenient access to tickets provided by the state-owned railway company, Perumka.
Perumka cannot even contemplate refusing a memo from the Armed Forces to provide personnel with tickets, even though they might not be used by the listed people, she said.
"These practices should no longer exist because the railway company has become a state-owned firm", she said.
Zumrotin said her field observations showed a lack of disabled facilities at terminals, except for specially made stairs -- and even these were at times uneven -- for people to board trains.
The organization's executive secretary Indah Sukmaningsih suggested that consumers cheated by unprofessional travel agents should demand compensation and administrative sanctions for bad services.
Indah said this applied to poor transportation services as well as products found in gift baskets which contain expired foodstuffs and damaged goods. (01)